You don’t have to wait for snow to melt to get back in a bike saddle. And you don’t need to take up skiing if you want to cruise over snow at top speeds. A fat bike can keep you in the saddle all year-round, including those snowy winter months.
Much like it sounds, fat biking, or fat tire biking, involves riding on snowy roads or trails (or sometimes sand) on a bicycle with extra wide tires that offer plenty of traction and stability on typically slick or unstable surfaces. Tyler Merringer, co-owner of Revolution Cycles, a bike shop in Rossland, British Columbia, Canada, has been riding off-road since the late 80’s, suggests fat biking as a fantastic way to get outside and enjoy winter, even if—especially if—you’re new to the activity.
Don’t consider yourself a mountain biker? No problem. While your first instinct may be to lump fat biking into the same category as mountain biking since both tend to happen on trails instead of paved paths, Merringer says it actually has more in common with road biking as long as you stick to wider groomed trails. That said, if you’re lucky enough to have a trail network like Rossland that uses specialized machinery to groom existing mountain bike singletrack, it can more closely resemble the mountain bike experience.
For example, mountain biking often involves navigating narrow, rocky, uneven trails, which require advanced bike-handling skills. Fat biking, because it’s done on smooth, soft surfaces like snow, means the trickiest part of fat biking will likely be the climbs and descents. So as long as you’re comfortable on a bike, there’s no reason not to give fat biking a go.
Another bonus: ending up on the ground on winter rides isn’t like crashing on dirt trails. Because you’re likely surrounded by snow on all sides, falling often feels more like a slow tilt into a soft bed than a crash (as long as no trees are involved).
Gear up
Before you head to the trail, though,…
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